


Thicker Than Blood

by Whitnium



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: A lil' bit 'o angst, Established Relationship, Field Medic Morrison, Jack is a Boy Scout, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, early days of overwatch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2017-11-16
Packaged: 2019-02-03 06:59:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12743334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whitnium/pseuds/Whitnium
Summary: And they sayBlood is thicker than waterOh, but love isThicker than bloodIn which Jack is both a good boy scout and a terrible doctor.





	Thicker Than Blood

"Would you stop, for cryin' out--Gabe! I am _not_ going to kiss you when you have a fucking _bullet_ in your shoulder."

Jack swipes at Gabriel's wandering hands, currently in the vicinity of his neck. Gabriel groans, rests his head against Jack's chest as his arms fall to his sides.

"You're a terrible doctor."

Jack does not appreciate the humor. He does not push Gabriel down, but motions vigorously toward the ground with his hands. "I can't use this bio-emitter with that bullet still in there."

Gabriel relents with a substantial sigh and uses his good arm to lower himself to his back.

"And just how do you plan to do this, Doctor Morrison? Suck it out of me?"

Jack produces a small medical kit from his belt and withdraws a pair of forceps.

"The old fashioned way," he responds, flatly.

"... I ain't even gonna ask," Gabriel moans, mouth agape. "Fucking boy scout."

Jack positions himself at Gabriel's side and leans very close. The entrance wound is ragged but appears--especially given the patient's surly demeanor--to be mostly superficial. Jack is no field medic, however, and is horribly aware that he _has no idea what he is doing_. His approach is hesitant as he probes at the wound.

Gabriel's tone is hilariously dramatic in response to Jack's face inches from his own: "I am not dying without kissing you first."

"You're not dying."

"Ha, could've fooled me with how scared you look right now."

"Gabe, just..." Jack's voice trails off, uncertain. "Just stop." His grip on the forceps is suddenly not as steady as he would like; he stops his ministrations when Gabriel hisses, body involuntarily lurching away.

"Goddamn, Morrison!"

"Sorry."

Gabriel's voice is rough around the edges: "How did I get myself in this situation? Oh, that's right." His lip curls in something between a smirk and a grimace. "'Cause of _y--"_

Jack stops him with a finger to the lips, but the gesture is frantic and the younger man's expression is one of pure panic.

"Gabe, I..."

He had overextended like a fucking idiot and only Gabriel's quick reflexes saved him from becoming intimately acquainted with hot lead. Jack tastes the shame, potent like acid on his tongue, and returns furiously to his work. In his mind he can still hear the sharp report of weapons, can feel the body slamming into him and falling with him to the ground.

The forceps find the bullet at last, but Jack hesitates.

"Tch," Gabriel steels himself. "Just do it. Be quick about it, for fuck's sake."

To say he _yanks_ the bullet is perhaps an overstatement, but the vile stream of curses that spill from Gabriel's mouth remind Jack quite potently of why he never pursued a career in medicine. His hands are shaking and he can barely reach for his bio-emitter without fumbling it to the ground.

"Easy there, doc," Gabriel wheezes. He grabs the fallen emitter and activates it, drops it between them and lets his body relax fractionally as the energy does its work.

The gentle yellow light throws dark shadows across Jack's horrified face.

"Look like you've seen a ghost, Jack."

A silent stare at the ground is the only response. With the crisis mollified--at least for the moment--Jack is suddenly skittish. Gabriel is not a man without his sympathies, but he regards his companion with a stern gaze.

"Hey. Jack. Jackie? I can read you like a fucking book."

Blue eyes flick upward, but the hard lines around Jack's face do not soften.

Gabriel's fingers trace the area around his wound gently. The biotic energy is beginning to slow the bleeding and ease the pain. He manages to sit up, though the effort is more tiring than he would like. "Look, I don't blame you, even though you're a colossal dumbass."

Jack flinches. He looks down at his hands, at Gabriel's blood, and sighs prodigiously. "Gabe..."

"Shut up," Gabriel stops him suddenly. "I don't care, Jackie. I'd take a hundred bullets if it meant saving you."

The sentence sounds so _weird_ that Jack questions his grip on reality for a few precious seconds, long enough for Gabriel to laugh at him and reach for his hand.

"... You sound ridiculous," Jack retorts, though without any degree of heat. He considers drawing his hand away but gives in to his aching heart and lets Gabriel's fingers intertwine with his own as they draw closer together. "Absolutely ridiculous..."

"Kinda happens to people when they fall in love, sunshine."

"We're in the middle of a _war zone,_ Gabe. . ."

Gabriel shrugs his good shoulder. "And?"

Jack tries to think of something, tries to quote a regulation he learned somewhere along the line, tries to appeal to any sort of authority _,_ but adrenaline has diverted all logic from his brain. He stammers, opens his mouth as if to speak, and eventually settles on a tremulous sigh.

It never occurred to Jack, not even once, that Gabriel was willing to die for him for a reason that was not due to esprit de corps, and he doesn't feel deserving of it. Wicked feelings writhe inside his chest: shame, regret. The burden of his own idiocy is a heavy one.  

"Don't get all morose on me." Gabriel lifts Jack's hand and places it to his chest, against his heart. "See? Ain't a ghost yet. And look," he motions with his head to the wounded shoulder.

"Not a bad job for a boy scout."

Jack sheds a little of his granite exterior, gently gathers Gabriel in his arms, and holds him in silence. Feeling the body against his chest reminds him of falling again, of the ringing of bullets in his ears. His throat constricts and emotion drags at his limbs, makes him feel weak.

"Can I get that kiss now?" Gabriel ventures, grinning wolfishly. The bio-emitter hums and dies, plunging them into sudden semi-darkness. "I think I hear them coming."

The sound of a large suit of armor moving in the distance and an onslaught of extremely loud German exclamations announces the arrival of the cavalry for a five mile radius.

"Only if you promise me something," Jack breathes.

"Yeah?"

_How does he phrase it?_

_Don't scare me like that again?_

_Don't be such a good solider?_

_Save me from my own stupidity?_

"... Don't you die because of me, Gabe. I don't think I could ever forgive myself."

Jack obliges Gabriel with his kiss at last and the latter attacks him with such ferocity that Jack feels as if his soul is being torn out of his mouth, a part of him being pulled into Gabriel that he never wants to get back.


End file.
